20091129

New Michigan Press is printing my chapbook at the end of December, or sometime around then. For the past few months Ander Monson has been designing it. Ander is a great book designer. He took my ideas and made them much better than I could have imagined. I'm really excited about the finished book.

Also, my friend Taylor Fox did the painting for the cover. He has a website, here. Most of his paintings are for sale. I own three of them: the two shown here (please click on the images to get a better look) and the one that's going to be the cover of I is to Vorticism (I will post that one later). Both of these paintings are from my old apartment at 20th and Valencia in San Francisco. The top one is of me and my friends, Brian and Evan in 2004. Taylor lived in the apartment at that time, too.

If you would like to review my chapbook on your blog or website or high school newspaper contact me at benmirov@hotmail.com. I will be happy to send you a signed copy free of charge as soon as they are available.

20091124

My girlfriend found these in an antique shop. They are cue cards for young readers. I think they were meant to be slipped into some kind of machine that only allowed the viewer to see one line at a time. But when you read them from top to bottom, they make rad poems.

Was not understood...

was not understoodwill pay quarterlydescend the stairsbeneath the oceanin good conditiontall and slenderwas their mascotlost his empirea boating partywill not endurebig spruce treereveal his namea fine musiciandid not inquiretook his advicedown the aisleuse a pronouna new handbagdo not disturb

Studied their culture...

studied their cultureunder new managementdown the banisterright hand sectionall by themselvesnevertheless he camewas a lieutenanttwo proper nounsglaze the hamwealth and honorwatched the surfgave the pluralsdoubt his storyknew all nounsa fine workmantoo much slangalter his suiton a pinnaclenot a quitterhe will refer.

20091117

20091116

I am a "runner-up" in the Juked poetry contest. I like Juked a heap. I think they are a classy journal. They've been around since 1999. You can see the other people who won or were finalists by going here.

20091109

20091104

1.) H_NGM_N published a e-book of mine called Collected Ghost in its 9th issue. You can read it, here (scroll down to the bottom after you read the other wonderful stuff). I used the cover and title of another chapbook I made in 2005, but the poems are all new.